FIT students complete a Summer Internship program at the Dresden Chip Academy, Germany

FIT students complete a Summer Internship program at the Dresden Chip Academy, Germany

Extracted from National as reported by Tony Glover on August 24, 2010

Emirati students train at the Dresden Chip Academy during their semiconductor internship programme. Abu Dhabi is investing heavily in the semiconductor industry and plans to have a chip-making workforce that is at least 50 per cent nationals. The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) is spending US$1.3 billion (Dh4.77bn) on plugging the UAE's skills gap in semiconductors, aerospace, renewable energy and health. The investment is further evidence of the UAE's determination to become a truly 21st century industrial power. ADEC estimates that for the emirate to fulfil its potential, 28 per cent of graduates need to be qualified in scientific and technological subjects by 2018.

Today only 9 per cent of local graduates have such qualifications. The education initiative coincides with Abu Dhabi's plan to develop a semiconductor plant in conjunction with Globalfoundries on a 3 square km site just outside Abu Dhabi International Airport. The new chip foundry is intended to act as a magnet for other international semiconductor companies. A senior source close to the Abu Dhabi Government-owned Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), which is the majority shareholder in the chip maker Globalfoundries, says it is a crucial part of the plan that 50 per cent of the people employed at the new chip-making facility should be Emiratis.

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